World press hail Barca triumph

MADRID: The world's press bowed Sunday before Barcelona's sublime 3-1 Champions Cup triumph over Manchester United and asked the question: Is this one of the greatest teams in history, and is Lionel Messi one of the greatest players?
In Spain, there was little doubt of the answer.
"Barcelona touched the heavens," headlined the daily El Pais.
"The best there is," blared the local El Periodico de Catalunya. "The best team in the world," boasted sports daily Mundo Deportivo. "Super Barca. Spanish football still top of the world," said sports paper AS.
Lionel Messi's carving up of the English side left pundits scrambling for comparisons to sum up the performance.
"They floated like butterflies and stung like bees. Led by the unstoppable Leo Messi, Barcelona left Manchester United battered. Bruised. Broken," said British tabloid The Sun.
Manchester gave it their all, the paper said. "But the Red Devils were subjected to a footballing masterclass. Relentlessly torn apart. Relentlessly executed."
The New York Times said the victory fuelled a debate about whether Barcelona was the one of the best teams in football history, quoting Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson's reply: "In my time as manager, yes."
The Daily Mail piled on the praise.
"In the entire history of this beautiful game, few teams have ever approached the state of perfection which FC Barcelona enjoyed in this European final," the Daily Mail said.
"In recent years they had promised to deliver the ultimate performance, the one which would lift them beyond compare. That performance was delivered."
Messi himself came in for the most lavish adoration.
"How can they fail with the enchanting genius Lionel Messi at their heart?" asked the Daily Mail.
The enduring image of the final, it said, would be a smiling Messi stumbling down a flight of steps with the Cup balanced on his head.
"Messi's mischief was done, his place in the pantheon secure. And if Barcelona only had Messi to offer, then they would be lavishly equipped."
London's Daily Telegraph said Messi's "dalliance with the ball was pure, breathless tango with United cast in the role of wallflowers."
"This was the sort of spellbinding performance from Barcelona, and particularly their wonderful Argentine magician, that makes even cynics fall back in love with football," the Daily Telegraph said. "Pass and move, move and score. Bewitching."
Britain's The Guardian said Messi had given the most effective performance by a deep-lying centre-forward since Nando Hidegkuti scored a hat-trick in Hungary's 6-3 defeat of England at Wembley in 1953.
Barcelona had made Manchester's game look rudimentary, the paper said. "A triumph for artistry, patience, imagination. And not a hint of gamesmanship. Magnificent, actually." AGENCIES

Last Pakistan A-Afghanistan clash on May 29

Pakistan A will play the last ODI of the three match series against Afghanistan at Faisalabad on Sunday.
Pakistan A is 2-0 up in the three match series. Both the teams’ players and officials are as follows.
Pakistan Squad: Sohail Tanveer (Captain), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicket-keeper), Babar Azam, Shan Masood, Sharjeel Khan, Umer Amin,Naveed Yasin, Usman Salahuddin, Rameez Raja, Zulfiqar Babar, Yasir Shah, Sohail Khan, Muhammad Talha and Sadaf Hussain.
Mansoor Amjad is not available in Pakistan and request has been sent to Chairman PCB to replace him with Saad Nasim.
Afghanistan squad: Nawroz Mangal (Captain), Mohammad Nabi (Vice-Captain), Mohammad Shahzad (Wicket-keeper), Karim Sadiq, Noor Ali, Mohammad Asghar, Javed Ahmadi, Samiullah Shinwari, Mirwais Ashraf, Hamid Hasan, Shahpur Zadran, Izatullah Dawlatzai, Dawlat Zedran, Shabir Noori, Gullbadin Naib and Nasimullah Khan.Pakistan A will play the last ODI of the three match series against Afghanistan at Faisalabad on Sunday.
Pakistan A is 2-0 up in the three match series. Both the teams’ players and officials are as follows.
Pakistan Squad: Sohail Tanveer (Captain), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicket-keeper), Babar Azam, Shan Masood, Sharjeel Khan, Umer Amin,Naveed Yasin, Usman Salahuddin, Rameez Raja, Zulfiqar Babar, Yasir Shah, Sohail Khan, Muhammad Talha and Sadaf Hussain.
Mansoor Amjad is not available in Pakistan and request has been sent to Chairman PCB to replace him with Saad Nasim.
Afghanistan squad: Nawroz Mangal (Captain), Mohammad Nabi (Vice-Captain), Mohammad Shahzad (Wicket-keeper), Karim Sadiq, Noor Ali, Mohammad Asghar, Javed Ahmadi, Samiullah Shinwari, Mirwais Ashraf, Hamid Hasan, Shahpur Zadran, Izatullah Dawlatzai, Dawlat Zedran, Shabir Noori, Gullbadin Naib and Nasimullah Khan.

Cricket-West Indies beat Pakistan by 40 runs in first test

West Indies beat Pakistan by 40 runs in the first cricket test, which ended after lunch on day four on Sunday.
Scores:
West Indies 226 from 98 overs (Lendl Simmons 49; Saeed Ajmal 5-69) and 152 from 61.5 overs (Saeed Ajmal 6-42); Pakistan 160 from 64.4 overs (Devendra Bishoo 4-68) and 178 from 73 overs (Misbah-ul-Haq 52; Darren Sammy 5-29)

Australia beat Pakistan In final of Azlan Shah Cup on golden goal

Australia beat Pakistan In final of Azlan Shah Cup on golden goal. Match was very interesting remained equal after two haves by score of 2-2. The first extra quarter also went goal less. Australia scored in second extra time and won on golden goal rule

No place for Pietersen in captaincy reshuffle

Former skipper Kevin Pietersen was left among the ranks after England took the bold step of announcing separate Test, one-day and Twenty20 captains
Test skipper Andrew Strauss’s decision to quit one-day internationals created a vacancy but England gave the 50-over leadership to Alastair Cook, his opening partner in the five-day game and long identified as a future England captain, rather than revert to Pietersen.
Ashes star Cook’s elevation had been widely trailed, despite his not considered being a good enough one-day batsman to be selected for the recent World Cup where a stuttering England suffered a 10-wicket quarter-final thrashing by eventual runners-up Sri Lanka.
But England sprung a surprise by announcing fast bowler Stuart Broad would succeed Paul Collingwood as captain of their world champion Twenty20 side. Pietersen, briefly England captain across the board in succession to Michael Vaughan in 2008-09, told the Daily Mirror last month: “If the one-day job becomes available, I would definitely be up for it.”
South Africa born Pietersen was stripped of the England captaincy after a deterioration in his relationship with Peter Moores, now at Lancashire, saw the then coach sacked.
The pair’s exits paved the way for the successful alliance between Strauss and coach Andy Flower that has yielded home and away Ashes triumphs.
Pietersen who has not played since returning home early from the World Cup with a hernia injury in March, hopes to return next week for Surrey in a three-day game against a Cambridge student side.
The 30-year-old put a brave face on being overlooked for a new leadership role with England by telling his Twitter followers on Thursday: “Congrats to Cookie & Broady on the captaincies.. New era for ENG. Young captains for the future.. Exciting times ahead!!”
Strauss has now followed in the footsteps of Ricky Ponting (Australia), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), Graeme Smith (South Africa) and Daniel Vettori (New Zealand) who have all, at the very least, stood down as one-day captains of their respective countries since the World Cup.
“Ultimately the decision was made because the end of the World Cup is a watershed for all one-day teams and is a team to refresh and regenerate and to move forward,” the 34-year-old Strauss explained.
“I didn’t think in my own mind that for me to start that process knowing full well I wouldn’t be able to see it through to the next World Cup (in Australia and New Zealand in 2015) was in the best interests of the team.”
Although it is not uncommon for leading nations to have separate Test and one-day captains, Flower admitted England were taking a gamble in opting for three skippers.
“I don’t think any side has had three separate captains before,” he said. “We do not know 100 percent whether it will work or whether it will be the most effective or efficient system, but we are going to give it a try.”

West Indies beat Pakistan again but lose 3-2 in series

West Indies secured a second successive victory with a 10-wicket rout in Guyana as Pakistan finished 3-2 winners in the one-day international series.
Pakistan chose to bat but were 139 all out in 41.2 overs, Ravi Rampaul taking two wickets in an over in his 4-45.
Only opener Mohammad Hafeez (55) defied with six fours in his 10th ODI fifty.
Lendl Simmons fired seven fours and three sixes in 77 from 73 balls, with Kirk Edwards on 40 from 71 as the Windies won with 159 balls remaining.
Hafeez pulled the first ball of the match from Rampaul for four and with two more off the seamer in the seventh over had 22 to his name with the score on 31-1.
Usman Salahuddin and Misbah-ul-Haq departed in successive overs before Umar Akmal struck the only six of the innings when he launched spinner Devendra Bishoo down the ground.
Hafeez was dismissed in the 29th over, the fourth Pakistan wicket to fall, when a delivery from Darren Sammy kept low, took the bottom edge and crashed into the stumps to give the West Indies captain his third wicket.
Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi was out for nine to a brutal delivery from Rampaul that lifted from just short of a length and the innings ended when Junaid Khan fell over playing across the line to Dwayne Bravo and was lbw, giving the all-rounder a second wicket in as many overs.
The Windies had six overs before the lunch break due because of the foreshortened first innings and calmly accumulated 34 without major alarm, Edwards surviving a difficult chance to wicketkeeper Mohammad Salman off the inside edge from the bowling of Afridi when on six.
Simmons, who also top-scored in the fourth match of the series, also gave a tough chance, this time to Hafeez at slip when on 31, but the flashing cut was struck so fiercely that it went for four.
He lofted Hafeez over square-leg for six, then in successive overs deposited Afridi over wide long-on for six more and hit a searing flat pull for six off left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz.
The talented opener from Trinidad & Tobago completed his sixth ODI half century as the Windies recorded their first 10-wicket success since July 2007

Pakistan defeated New Zealand in Azlan Shah Cup

Pakistan on Thursday defeated New Zealand 4-2 in the opening match of the 20^th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh.
It ended a run of five consecutive defeats at the hands of the Kiwis for Pakistan and gave them a good start to a tournament they hope to win.
Pakistan went on the offensive from the first whistle and came close to scoring in the second minute, but Muhammad Umar Bhutta sent his attempt wide with only keeper Kyle Pontifex to beat.
However Muhammad Rizwan Senior made his shot count in the third minute to give Pakistan a 1-0 lead.
The Kiwis then got their act together but failed to get the better of the Pakistani defence marshaled by skipper Muhammad Imran. With only Stephen Jenness showing some deft touches, New Zealand failed to get a decent shot on goal in the opening 15 minutes.
Pakistan were awarded their first penalty corner in the 24^th minute and although the pus out was off the mark, Sohail Abbas managed to get a drag flick on target but was padded away by Kyle only to see it fall onto the path of Syed Kashif Shah who made no mistake to put Pakistan 2-0 ahead.
Though New Zealand were awarded two penalty corners at the stroke of half-time, they failed to make them count and the two teams trooped off with Pakistan leading 2-0.
In the 40^th minute Pakistan were awarded their third penalty corner and Sohail’s low drag flick was well saved by Kyle yet again.
Pakistan went 3-0 up in the 51^st minute when Abdul Haseem Khan managed to steer the ball past Kyle after a fine run by Muhammad Waqas on the right.
However Andrew Hayward reduced the deficit by converting a penalty corner in the 59^th minute. But the joy was shortlived as Umar Bhutta put Pakistan 4-1 ahead in the 61^st minute.
Though Hugo Inglis scored in the 63^rd minute, the failure of New Zealand to take their chances from the six penalty corners they were awarded put paid to their chances of gaining anything from this match.

Thorpe set for November return – coach

Five-time Olympic champion Ian Thorpe was on track to make a return to competitive swimming in November, his coach said on Thursday.
Australia’s most decorated Olympian last February announced his return to swimming for next year’s London Olympics and has spent the past two months working with coach Gennadi Touretski in Switzerland.
Thorpe, 28, was a guest at last week’s Royal wedding in London looking trim and taut after slimming down to under 100kg (220 pounds) for the first time since announcing his comeback.
Under FINA rules Thorpe is not eligible to compete until November, but Touretski said he was confident Thorpe would be ready to begin competition immediately, as he builds towards Australia’s Olympic trials in March.
“I think in November he will come back to racing activity,” Touretski told Australian Associated Press from Switzerland.
“I believe we will start with the World Cup race in Singapore (November 4).”
Touretski, 61, who has coached swimmers to more than 40 world records throughout his career, said Thorpe was making good progress.
“He is in a good stage because his approach is positive,” the former Australian Institute of Sport mentor said.
“He is also very creative. I never communicated with him very close (in the past) but I realise how bright he is.”
The Russian said it was too early to tell whether Thorpe would be more suited to the 100m or 200m freestyle in his comeback, but said he could use his age to his advantage in the shorter events.
“He must do different things with his technical preparation and this of course depends on his physical ability,” Touretski said.
“But at his age… he is stronger now than before and that is encouraging for the future.
“When it comes to his fitness levels, we followed a very simple structure. Of course, he has lost weight, but Ian is now the same he was at the (Sydney) Olympics in 2000.
“To me, he looks brilliant, but I don’t want the emphasis on him losing weight but more on what he is going to do after.”
Thorpe won 11 world titles and set 13 long-course records before announcing his retirement from swimming in November 2006 after 10 years in the Australian team, saying he had lost the desire to compete.